Tips & Tricks

There are several standards to keep in mind which will make it easier (for definitions of program related words, see the Help section called FileMaker® Basics):

To find this help menu from any file, click on “HELP” at the top of the window and select Membership Keeper Help. To exit help, close the help window.

Use the gray bar at the top of the window to create “NEW” records, “DELETE” records, “FIND” records, , “SORT” records, “SHOW ALL” records.

Use the gray buttons at the top to move from sections such as Contacts (Parents, Alumni, Donors and Affiliates), Staff, Students, etc.

Click on titles in the light gray bar at the top of lists to sort columns alphabetically or by date.

To print, go to Reports which is the last tab on a Detail page. Click on the description of the report you want or click on a button with a paper icon. A script will run to prepare your report in Preview Mode. From Preview Mode, use FileMaker menu item “File”, go to Print and use the dialog box that appears.

Fields that are grayed instead of white or can not be entered represent a calculated field that gets its information elsewhere and can not be changed in that location.

Do not leave your cursor blinking in a field because then others can not access the information if the file is on a network or hosted. To exit a field, either click a button or click in blank space such as the blank light blue area to the left of the tabs.

To paste text from the Clipboard without formatting (like font, size, bold or italics), click the field you want to hold the text, then press Ctrl+Shift+V (Windows) or Command+Option+V (Mac OS). Make sure the field is empty before you paste (you may need to exit the field briefly if you just deleted the contents), otherwise it may pick up the remaining text’s formatting.

Hold the “shift” button to unmark a radio button.

To “save” your work, simply click outside of the field you are working in and then click back in the field and continue working.